The Seismic Principles exam is a 2.5 hour, 55-question computer based exam offered by the California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists (BPELSG). This test is no joke, especially for those with a non-structural focus, since you need to understand some pretty complex concepts if you want to pass. Also, at roughly 2.7 minutes per question, with many of them requiring you to lookup information in various references, you can’t afford to make many mistakes. If you have no structural background like me, you absolutely CANNOT self-study for this exam.

EET’s course was recommended to me by many people at engineerboards.com and my coworkers, so I decided to give it a shot.

ValueThe course was $500 when I took it, and includes everything I’m discussing below. It sounds like a lot, but you really get your money’s worth.

Lecture QualityEET offers their seismic course in a live (in-person or online), and on-demand video format. I took the on-demand version, and it’s nice that you can rewind when necessary and view the videos whenever you want. The on-demand course uses recorded lectures from the previous online class. The courses and other content are accessible through a browser-based software called Adobe Connect.

In total, there’s about 60 hours worth of video content, and you can view the videos as many times as you’d like. In the videos, Ahmed goes through each page and example in the provided textbook, and adds tidbits of comments and extra examples to help you understand the concepts. There’s also a chatroom where you can ask questions or post answers to Ahmed while he’s teaching (in the on-demand course you can still view the chatroom).

To me, Ahmed’s commentary was the most useful. Dr. Ibrahim lets you know what you should highlight or make extra notes on. He also goes over common mistakes, and what is likely to appear on the exam. He’s an expert on the subject, so there are some extra topics that are in the book for completion’s sake, but are not necessary. However, he knows this and he makes sure you focus on what’s important for the exam.

Class TextbookAhmed has actually written a textbook for studying and preparing for the Seismic Exam, and it provided in the course package. The book assumes you have no prior structural experience, and starts from learning about what causes earthquakes, to calculating the shear capacity of a wooden diaphragm. The book is too dry to read on your own, and is a bit theoretical, but the class lectures are entirely based on the book, so if you just follow along with the course videos, you’ll be able to go through the entire book. There are 14 chapters in my version of the book, and at the end of each chapter there are anywhere between 10-150 practice problems, along with an appendix containing the solution to each one. The book comes in a comb-binding, and you’re allowed to bring it into the exam room.

Reference MaterialsI’m no structural engineer, but from how I understand it, in California, building design is based on the California Building Code (CBC), which has adopted much of its regulations from the International Building Code (IBC), along with some amendments. The CBC includes seismic design requirements. Many of these seismic requirements are based on a document published by the American Society of Engineers (ASCE), called the “Minimum Design Loads of Buildings and Other Structures” or ASCE-7. Most of the equations/design criteria on the test are based on ASCE-7 and the CBC. Some other organizations, such as The Masonry Society and American Wood Council, have their own design criteria for their respective building materials.

ASCE-7 Cover

It’s quite daunting how much reference material you need to have on-hand for this exam. Thankfully Dr. Ibrahim provides you with all of the necessary codes, equations, and references you need. You absolutely do not need to print or buy anything else beyond what’s provided by the course.

Here are some photos of my reference binder that includes all of the reference materials provided by the course. I used this binder to answer about 90% of the questions on the test, while using the book’s index for anything I couldn’t find. Please note that you really need to know all of your references inside and out for your binder to be effective. I highly suggest writing your own personalized notes and adding tabs so that you can quickly lookup information.

Practice Quizzes/WorkshopsThe course also provides you with “workshops” and practice-quizzes. The workshops are PDF/printable and contain additional questions with step-by-step tips for solving the problems. After solving the workshops you can look at a video where Ahmed covers each question in depth.

The practice quizzes come in PDF/printable form and are useful for gauging your mastery on chapters with tough concepts. Questions on these quizzes are for the most part much harder and longer to solve than the actual exam’s difficulty. These practice quizzes come in handy as an additional study tool to the CBTs.

Computer-Based Tests (CBTs)The CBTs give you a good feel for what the exam day will be like. Ahmed’s course is setup so that you complete the entire book, videos, practice-quizzes, and workshops before you take the CBTs. He recommends you take the CBTs starting the week before the exam, and its good advice because it gives you enough time to prepare mentally for the big day.

The CBTs run on a software that is very similar to the one used at Prometric (the testing company that administers the test) . There’s a countdown timer and you can flag questions. However, I believe one of the features that were missing in the CBTs versus the actual test is the ability to cross-off eliminated answers by clicking the right mouse button.

There are three CBTs, ranging from (1) tricky, (2) lengthy, to (3) about-what-you-should expect. I’d say that all of these exams, including the third one, are a good representation of the actual exam difficulty. You can take the CBTs over and over until you master them.

After completing the test and wiping off the exam sweat, you get your score right away. The answers are not online, but instead they are in a solutions booklet that is provided in addition to the class textbook. I believe you can buy this booklet separately on Amazon if you don’t plan on taking the full course:

The TeacherAhmed is a very dedicated teacher, he really knows his stuff, and he truly wants you to succeed. He responds fast to emails, has online office hours every week, and even provides you with his phone number.

Just to give you an example of Ahmed’s dedication, after I took a couple of the CBTs and did pretty well on them, he personally emailed me to comment on my good scores and offered words of encouragement. Who does that?! Keep in mind I was taking his on-demand course, so I didn’t really interact with him besides emailing him a few times for help on a few tricky textbook questions. Ahmed really made me feel like his actual student, and not just another customer.

Closing NotesThe actual exam turned out to be tougher than the CBT exams, but since this was the first CBT exam I ever took, I think stress and nerves got the best of me (tip: don’t wear headphones to block out the noise, you’ll end up hearing your heartbeat and psyche yourself out). I really, and foolishly, believed I would be able to ace the exam after my past performance on the CBTs, but I ended up completely guessing on seven of the problems since I ran out of time. My confidence was shaken as I left that exam room, but I still thought I answered enough questions correctly to pass (and I did!). The preparation I received through EET instilled hope that I would pass regardless. Ahmed also offered encouraging words after the exam.

I had a great experience taking EET’s Seismic Course, and I highly recommend it to anyone. You’ll have very good odds of passing if you complete his entire course, practice problems, and CBTs, regardless of your background. In fact, when I took the exam in Spring 2017, the reported passing rate was 89% for all of his classes. I believe that as long as you put in the time and effort to train with EET’s course, and follow Ahmed’s advice, you will very likely pass on the first try. Thanks again Dr. Ibrahim!

About Me

Welcome to my site, I plan to post various topics and tips for civil engineering, but branching out to other topics as i continue on 🙂